Hawaiian legacy
Native culture and language thrive at a small church in Kahaluu

By Mary Adamski

Members of the Anglican Indigenous Network will convene in Hawaii later
this month to talk about ways to weave the culture and languages native
to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and other U.S. states
into worship services.

St. John's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, 47-074 Lihikai Drive, Kahaluu.
The annual luau will be May 16. Tickets are $20 for the sit-down dinner
or takeout meals. Call 239-7198 for reservations.

Too bad about their timing.
Had they been here Sunday morning, they could have had a Hawaiian immersion
experience. From the opening hymn to the closing blessing, and all
the songs, psalms, prayers, epistle and Gospel readings in between,
the Eucharistic liturgy at St. John's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was
in the Hawaiian language. Even before a word was spoken, three conch
shells were blown, instead of the usual bells calling people to worship.

The small Kahaluu parish holds a Hawaiian service four times a year.
Last week it was in honor of Prince Kuhio Kalanianaole, who was confirmed
in the Episcopal Church here, as were Queen Liliuokalani and King Kamehameha
IV and Queen Emma, who are honored at other times in the year. The latter
two alii, who invited the Anglican Church to Hawaii, are considered saints
in the Episcopal Church.

St. John's has a Hawaiian legacy all its own. The church was founded
in 1931 on the Wailau peninsula -- about a mile makai of the Hygienic
Store -- an area that was a fishing village long before Libby McNeil & Libby
attempted to grow pineapples there. The congregation first met in a corrugated
metal warehouse left when the plantation company pulled out. In 1947
the church members moved into the current white clapboard chapel on Kamehameha
Highway at Lihikai Drive.

"Fishermen came to this church. The farmers stayed up in the valley
at the Methodist church," said Emalia Naipo, 75, who has sung in
the choir since she was 17. She is in the 1931 photograph taken at the
first service. And, she said, the other 50 or so people in the photo "all
were related to me. Seven generations of the Ho'okano family lived here.
The family was so close, all the cousins lived nearby. The men earned
their living fishing, and some worked on county road crews."

She was married to Gene Naipo in 1955 at St. John's, and their five
children, since scattered, sometimes return for holiday services.

The choir sings church songs in Hawaiian during St. John's by-the-Sea
Episcopal Church's Hawaiian Mass, in Kahaluu. The Mass was
recited almost entirely in Hawaiian.

Photo by Jamm Aquino

One of her vivid memories is of Dec. 7, 1941. "I was 7 years old.
We were getting ready for church a little after 7 a.m. when we saw Japanese
airplanes coming over the mountains. We saw bombs falling in the water.
The people all gathered at the church."

The nearby Navy Air Station -- now Kaneohe Marine Base Hawaii -- called
for men to come and help after the attack. "My father, Kamiki Ho'okano,
went," said Naipo. "He was driving his car, and it was strafed
by Japanese planes. He was killed that morning."

But Sunday was not about sad memories. It was a time of joyous sound
as congregation members joined the eight-person choir in familiar Hawaiian
hymns and anthems that reverberated into the high-peaked ceiling and
out the open windows.

Despite its roots, the congregation did not get into total Hawaiian-language
worship until the late Rev. Charles Hopkins, a native Hawaiian, came
as rector from 1986 to 1996.

"We carried on his legacy," said Paul Nahoa Lucas, senior
warden. "We should not abandon our culture at the doorstep of the
church Sundays. The key is more than physical manifestations but to try
to incorporate more of a Hawaiian perspective." Lucas said the indigenous
initiatives of the church "are getting us to think how we can incorporate
our culture into our worship."

With the aid of printed primer sheets, the language tripped off the
tongues of the 50 people present in differing degrees of fluency.

Lucas' son Kaipo, a Kamehameha Schools senior who was in Hawaiian immersion
classes since preschool, said participating in the Hawaiian liturgy "is
the best scenario possible for me." He created a cloth banner displayed
near the altar, containing images of a Hawaiian hawk, a humpback whale,
kukui and taro leaves around a shield and cross. "Each one symbolizes
a kinolau, a physical manifestation of a Hawaiian god. It acknowledges
our culture and holds Jesus Christ as the center." Kaipo's grandmother
Ruth Lucas, his parents and younger brother Kapono are active in the
congregation.

"In any indigenous people, language is the life force," said
Ted Paaoao, who clearly relished the opportunity to add his harmonizing
to the choir's efforts. He attended with his wife, Carol, son Pomaikai,
daughter Kristin, their spouses and two grandchildren. He said his four
children attended Hawaiian-language immersion schools, and the grandchildren
will follow.

The only English spoken Sunday was the homily by the Rev. Jodene Hawkins,
rector of St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Palama, standing in for
the Rev. David Gierlach, St. John's part-time rector, who was out of
town.

"We haven't raised up Hawaiian priests," said Mahi Beimes,
one of the lay leaders at the service and a descendant of the Kalahiki
family. There is only one native Hawaiian priest still serving in the
Hawaii diocese, she said. Already well into her first career as a Pearl
Harbor Naval Shipyard manager, Beimes is one of four people in the parish
undergoing a discernment process about becoming a priest.

"For those of us who are native Hawaiian, it is a concern," she
said. "The story of our church in Hawaii began with the invitation
of the king and queen."

It's not their language, but Frank and Caitilin Embree read along and
said they enjoy the church's multiethnic culture. Both have lived in
other countries and experienced worship in other tongues. "What
I like is that three and four generations of involvement are going on," she
said.

Mary Adamski wrote weekly about Hawai`i's houses of worship in the
former Star-Bulletin.